Overload
To improve the fitness of a part of the body, you need to overload it. That means you need to make it work harder than usual. Over time, it adapts to meet the increased demand by getting fitter
You can overload your body in three ways :
· By increasing the Frequency of exercise- how often you do it.
For example start by exercising twice a week, then move up to three or four times a week.
· By increasing the Intensity of the exercise- how hard you work.
For example run faster or lift heavier weights.
· By increasing the Time you spend on the exercise. If you are very unfit you might start off jogging just for 5 minutes a session, and work your way up week by week to 30 minutes a session.
Progression
Your body takes time to adapt to the increased demands on it. So you should build up your exercise level gradually. But once it reaches a certain level when it can comfortably deal with the level of exercise, it will not improve anymore. This is called plateauing. To prevent this from happening the exercises must be made progressively harder to ensure that the body continues to improve.
The Circuit
The order in which the exercises are to be done are:
Warm up >> Stretches >> The Circuit >> Warm Down
Warm up & Stretching – The warm up is very important, as the exercises you will be doing are very demanding. The warm up will increase the blood flow and heart rate, warm up the muscles, warms and loosens joints. This will prevent any injuries to the muscles or joints.
Start by lightly jogging for approximately 10 mins. DO NOT SPRINT!!!. Then move on to some dynamic stretching. For example, rotating hips and arms. Then stretch all the major muscles used for football, each stretch should be held for a period of 8 – 10 seconds.
The muscles that need to be stretched are:
1.Hamstrings
2.Quadricep
3.Gastrocnemiuis
4.Triceps
5.Deltoids
6.Trapezium
Station One
On this station you have to start at the line, And skip 50 times in a forward direction standing on the line. Once this is done skipping in a backwards direction 50 times will help you to be a bit more flexible before the exercise
Station Two
This station is a sit up exercise. Perform as many as you can in one minute. These will improve muscular endurance in the abdominal muscles; this comes in handy when you need to move a long distance on the trampoline. This is explosive strength because it is done in one explosive movement.
Station Three
This exercise concentrates on the legs, so leg raises should help to make your legs a bit more flexible (like the skipping) and not as easy to damage by doing this 20 times.
Station Four
This exercise concentrates on the joints in the legs (knees) doing step ups should improve the movement of these and make it easier to do complex moves. Also this should help with suppleness.
Station Five
Use this time (1 minute) to rest and relax. Some light stretching can be done to remove the lactic acid that has built up in your muscles during the first four exercises.
Station Six
The exercise on this station are burpees, burpees are squat thrusts and star jumps mixed together. Do a squat thrust then stand up and do a star jump and then another squat thrust then stand up and do another star jump. This will improve your agility, cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance and strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings.
Station Seven
This exercise will be focusing on the arms and legs and also the movement of the body. Press ups should help to improve performance, and doing this will also warm up the elbows and knees.
Station Eight
The exercise on this station is running on the spot doing this as long as you can should help to improve muscular endurance.
Station Nine
This Final exercise is doing some different stretches to finish off the training and shaking the parts of the body you have used in the exercise
Once the circuit is finished it can be repeated or a warm down will take place, the warm down will consist of gentle jogging and stretching to remove the lactic acid that builds up in muscles while they are being worked. The warm down should help you perform better next time you exercise.
The muscles that were stretched in the warm up should also be stretched in the warm down. The stretches should be held longer then they were in the warm up to prevent stiffness and soreness.
The table below displays results for one week of this circuit.
Evaluation
In general my circuit program was successful, it tested each area of fitness that I wanted it to.
Station 1, Skipping, this station was very successful by the end of the six week period I had improved my speed as I did more skips in one minute. It also improved my agility and the endurance of my quadriceps and hamstrings.
Station 2, sit-up exercise, this station was very tiring, after each time I performed this exercise I could feel my abdominal muscles becoming stronger. I improved throughout the six weeks, there was a slight glitch in the results, which was in week 4 I’d had a cold that week and that, was why I was under performing. But as a whole I improved the strength and endurance of my abdominal muscles.
Station 3, Leg Raises, I found this exercise very difficult but my legs found it much easier to do it during the six week period.
Station 4, Step ups, this station tested my strength in my legs. This was one of the easier stations as step ups isn’t a very strenuous work out, although I did improve in the six-week period.
Station 5 REST
Station 6, burpees, this I found was the most difficult as it was very tiring and I had already done 4 other stations. This did improve my agility, cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance and strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings.
Station 7, press ups, this was a fairly difficult exercise I have improved because the strength in my arms had became strongerl, I noticed this in week five when I wasn’t as tired as I was the weeks before.
Station 8, Running on the Spot, I am fairly good at running already but by the end of the program I was able to keep this going for a fairly long time.
Station 9, Stretches, I found these easir to do by the end of the program as I was using them a lot more then usual.
During week four my results decrease, the reason for this is that I wasn’t very well during the week and was unable to perform to my full potential,
I found the circuit to be very intense and tiring, but very effective as my circuit tested all the areas I wanted it to. I was very tired though after completing each week of the program, my muscles were aching and my heart and breathing rate had increased drastically. If I were to perform the circuit program again I would start by having a recovery time between each station, also I would make the exercise time slightly less at the beginning of the program so I could get use to doing the exercises gradually.;
Although I had improved during the six-week period I had only improved slightly, so if I were repeating this program I would like to make it last 12 weeks so improvements could be seen more easily. Once the circuit becomes to easy I would have to make it harder to affect plateauing. If the circuit is not made harder the body will stop improving in the areas of muscular endurance and anaerobic respiration. The body must also train to prevent reversibility. This is when the affects of training decrease and the benefits are lost.
